Frederike Schneider-Vielsäcker

Co-Founder

My name is Frederike and I’m the co-founder of theInternational Women’s Connection.

I grew up in a small village in South Germany. For a child it was very lovely to be raised in the countryside where I could jauntily enjoy playing in the woods. However, it was also a very narrow-minded environment. I began to notice that during my school time when my German teacher told me I've got no talent at all in writing. Thanks to my emancipated single mother I had enough self-esteem to not be intimidated by his judgement.

After high school, I wrote my first report on my journey through Mexico and blogged it. During my B.A. studies I did an internship at the local newspaper and wrote further reports on my journeys through China. My travelogues got published in the magazine “InAsien”. Just before finishing my M.A. studies, I was involved in the publication process of the book “China wie wir es sehen” which includes my first short story.

To this day, I am still writing (so let me tell you something: never let other’s opinion get in your way!) although I've slightly changed the substance of my writing. Holding a B.A. and M.A. in Chinese Studies I am now doing my PhD at the Free University Berlin. In addition to that, I work there as a researcher and lecturer. I hold seminars on the emancipation movement at the beginning of the 20th Century in China, contemporary Chinese queer identity and life, and Chinese Science Fiction literature.

Due to my interest in foreign cultures, especially the Asian cultures, and the various cuisines it was very easy to connect with Anh. Appealing to my feminist heart, she quickly had me with her idea to found the IWC.